Analysis of oral health productivity in the Brazilian prison system from 2017 to 2022: a retrospective ecological study.

Objective: This study compared the productivity of prison oral health teams during the COVID-19 crisis (2020-2022) with the previous three-year period (2017-2019) to identify the number and type of dental procedures performed.

Methods: We employed an ecological and retrospective study using Primary Care Health Information System data. We analyzed data from all municipalities that reported the productivity of Prison Primary Care Teams from 2017 to 2022, totaling 418 municipalities distributed across all five Brazilian regions. Data pertaining to 15 oral health procedures were collected and subsequently grouped into five categories: preventive, urgent, extraction, periodontics, and restorative. The data revealed a non-normal distribution and were evaluated using the Wilcoxon test.

Results: The findings revealed inequality between regions, with the productivity of several municipalities being close to or equal to zero. Although the number of restorative procedures reduced in both periods (2017-2019 and 2020-2022), it was not statistically significant. However, statistically significant increases were observed, with the exception of restorative and periodontal procedures. Urgent and extraction procedures prevailed over restorative and periodontal treatments.

Conclusion: Access to Brazilian oral health procedures for inmates is low and remained unaffected by the pandemic, maintaining similar characteristics with increased productivity during that period.